Ladbrokes league 1, Tony Macaroni Stadium, Saturday 5th November 2016
Livingston 3 (Buchanan 45’, 66’, Miller 49’) - East Fife 1 (Smith 53’)
Man of the Match: Kevin Smtih
Livingston XI: Kelly, Miller, Neill, Crighton, Halkett, Longridge, Cadden (Byrne 62’), Pittman, Buchanan (Carrick 84’), De Vita (Currie 80’), Mullen
Subs Not Used: Maley, Sinclair, Mullin, Watt
Booked: None
East Fife XI: Hurst, Mercer, Slattery, Kane, Kerr, Brown, Smith (McManus 76’), Wilkie, Wallace (Insall 83’), Naysmith, O’Hara (Goodfellow 65’)
Subs Not Used: Lamont, Austin
Booked: Kane, Smith
Dismissed: Hurst, McManus
Referee: Craig Napier
Attendance: 907
East Fife travelled to Livingston to face the league leaders but left empty handed and with two red cards following a 3-1 defeat. East Fife made two changes to the side that narrowly lost to Airdrieonians the previous week with Kevin O’Hara and Tony Wallace replacing Jamie Insall and the suspended Jonathan Page.
As in the reverse fixture at Bayview in November, it was East Fife who started the brightest with Tony Wallace unlucky to see his shot from the edge of the box deflected behind for a corner in the 9th minute. East Fife were causing problems from set pieces and were presented with a couple of good opportunities to get on the score sheet. First Kevin Smith hit the side netting after Kane headed Mercer’s corner back across goal before O’Hara should have done better at the back post following a Naysmith free kick.
Livingston had their first sight of goal on 25 minutes when Crighton broke free of his marker but couldn’t direct his header from Cadden’s corner. East Fife then had a great chance to take the lead when O’Hara collected the ball inside his own half and skipped away from the Livingston defence but his pass to Wallace came too late and his was unable to control with only the ‘keeper to beat. Livingston were awarded a free kick on the edge of the box from which Cadden fired wide before the hosts opened the scoring on the stroke of half time. A quick East Fife throw in was intercepted by Miller who broke forward down the right and picked out Buchanan to tap in from a couple of yards.
Livingston doubled their lead five minutes after the break when Miller fired home a free kick from 25-yards into the top corner. Kevin Smith pulled one back for East Fife on 53 minutes when he collected Brown’s flick on inside the area and lifted the ball over the defender before firing past Kelly from close range. East Fife were reduced to 10-men on 63 minutes when Mark Hurst was dismissed for a last-man challenge on Mullen inside the area. In a triple